Ralph Bacerra’s work continually addresses the beauty of the decorated ceramic surface. Bacerra has maintained a steadfast focus on ornamentation; his meticulous approach incorporates a variety of elaborate non-western techniques, merging the influences of 20th century American studio ceramics with traditional Asian ceramics. Ulysses Grant Dietz recognized, "An entirely different painterly quality began to appear in American studio pots in the late 1970s. Ralph Bacerra was one of the first potters to revive the highly decorative surface, turning to enamels and luster glazes in a way that would have been unheard of in Los Angeles (or anywhere else in the Western world, for that matter) a decade earlier."

Bacerra’s work is influenced by his travels to China, Japan, and Taiwan. His work incorporates a multitude of visual experiences, including his investigations of Imari ware, China paint techniques with layered glazes and enameled silver and gold, and celadon works at the National Museum in Taipei. Bacerra, stimulated by the mystery of these objects, incorporates traditional techniques—yet adapts them in his own style. Ralph Bacerra states:

My pieces are based on traditional ideas and engage in certain cultural appropriations—in form, in design, in glaze choices. However, my work is not postmodern in the sense that I am not making any statements—social, political, conceptual, or even intellectual. There is no meaning or metaphor. I am committed more to the idea of pure beauty. When it is finished, the piece should be like an ornament, exquisitely beautiful.

Ken Johnson, Art Critic of the New York Times, writes "To look at Ralph Bacerra’s gorgeous ceramic vessels is to wallow in visual hedonism." The interlocking shapes of M.C. Escher and the voided areas in Japanese prints have informed Bacerra’s sense of design. Further visual influences on Bacerra’s work come from abstract painters of the 20th century including Wassily Kandinsky. Author Mac McCloud discusses Bacerra’s ability to orchestrate these elements:

The geometric imagery of Bacerra’s collages conveys authority, sinuosity and the freewheeling wit of neatly interwoven stripes of shifting background hues. He synthesizes a verity of visual influences, several from non-Western cultures. His adaptations of ‘Oriental’ concepts of space—the planes that tilt precipitously forward towards the viewer.

Ralph Bacerra studied ceramics at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, California, an institution that later merged with California Institute of the Arts, earning a bachelor of fine arts in 1961. Bacerra studied with Vivika Heino and later taught at the institution from 1963 to 1972. After leaving Chouinard, Bacerra worked for a decade as a studio artist until accepting a position as chairman of the ceramics department at Otis College of Art and Design in 1983. He retired in 1996 and has since been traveling and working in his studio in Eagle Rock, California.

Ralph Bacerra’s work is included in museum collections worldwide, which are listed below. Bacerra has received commissions from several institutions including the Four Seasons in San Francisco, California, and Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. In both situations Bacerra was asked to create large, site-specific, vessels for dining room installation. In addition Bacerra has designed several large murals including a fourteen-foot mural for the Western Assets Plaza in Pasadena. The mural is comprised of over 3,000 individually fabricated pieces possessing undulating visual form.